Java 8 was launched in March 2014 with great fanfare. The new lambda syntax allows us to have a more succinct coding style and get rid of a lot of boilerplate code. However, there is also confusion. Even the “State of the Lambdas” paper starts by comparing lambdas to ActionListener. Even though that is indeed a functional interface, its related listeners such as MouseListener are not. In this talk, Heinz will show a number of interfaces and let the audience decide whether of not it qualifies as a functional interface. We end off the talk with a short demo of how we can write mixins in Java, by combining functional interfaces with default methods.

Dr. Heinz Kabutz is best known for his creation of The Java Specialists‘ Newsletter, read in 134 countries by 70000 Java experts. In his newsletter, he examines advanced aspects of Java that have helped Java developers around the world to produce better code. As someone remarked on the Sun website: „Heinz Kabutz is a hero in the Java Developer Community. His newsletters have saved companies millions by helping burgeoning and experienced programmers deliver high quality products.“